$3.9 million port security grant noncompliant – Feds

"Petrochemical alley" stretches west down the channel - downtown in the distance

Texas Petro plant shuns reporting

Houston – There was not a cognizant man or woman in the Bayou City who didn't get a little catch in their breath the day Islamic terrorist operatives of Al Qaeda bombed the U.S.S. Cole – October 12, 2000.

The small boat that approached the man-o-war as she lay dockside in Aden taking on fuel was loaded with an estimated 300-700 pounds of explosives that blew a 40 by 40-foot gash in her port side, killed 17 men and injured 39.

What if.

What if terrorists pulled the same stunt at a refinery or petrochemical plant?

The thought raced around the collective conscience of a 14-million member metro community, the fourth largest in the nation, at the speed of light.

That's because it's a well-known fact that when a ship or barge loaded with volatile chemicals explodes, it sets off a chain reaction that affects the tank farms and hydrocarbon crackers next door – in a chain reaction. It happened in 1947 at Texas City. A burning ship- load of ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded, and chain reacted at an oil refinery and at Union Carbide.

There is an area on the Houston Ship Channel that is known as “petrochemical alley” because it is the home of plant after plant that produces some of the most volatile stuff known, and the global war on terror presents a security nightmare come wide awake and standing on people's chests in the broad daylight.

Congress wasted no time passing the Maritime Safety Act of 2002, which provided for Port Security Grants to add video surveillance cameras, detection devices, and state of the art communications systems to summon police, fire boats and – most important – Coast Guard cutters. Less than a dozen ports were identified as high risk, and Houston is one of them.

When the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 came along with its hundreds of billions in bailout money, Texas Petrochemicals LP received an award of $3.9 million to buy and install the best security devices at the company's ship and barge docks located on the channel at the plant located at 8600 Park Place Blvd., a hoot and a holler from Hobby International Airport, the Gulf Freeway that connects downtown to Galveston and other Bay Area communities, and millions upon millions of family dwellings.

Disaster planning experts have estimated that an uncontained chain reaction could ignite volatile targets all the way to downtown Houston.

Texas Petrochemicals is one of the world's only suppliers of butadiene, the hardening agent that is used in auto and truck tires, solvents for paints, fuel additives, and a list of a dozen more exotic products made from petroleum and natural gas distilled at high temperatures, titrated and gassified under pressure, stored in huge tanks, shipped in railroad tank cars and tanker trucks, barges and ships.

The terms of the grant call for the company to make a financial report each quarter, certifying what funds it has spent or desires to be paid, and that the money was used under the terms of the grant.

But it's been 3 cycles – 9 months - since a report has gone to Washington and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.

Government officials promised to get back with details on what, exactly, is askew, but were never heard from again over the course of two business days. After repeated attempts, one learns that the people who are to be contacted are young, well-mannered, patient junior executives who are well-paid to file and forget questions about public information.

The company referred this inquirer to Sarah Cronin, corporate director of communications, who let it be known in angry Monday morning tones that she was terribly busy, to make it snappy.

“We're not going to respond on behalf of the government,” she said.

Quitting time on Tuesday came and her e-mail was abrupt and bruising as the football weather that comes with the first norther of fall.

“...TPC Group does not disclose information regarding its security program and its ongoing efforts to uphold the highest standards of safety and security at our facility, to protect our employees and those living and working around the communities in which we operate. I'm sure you can appreciate the sensitivities around keeping this information confidential.”

All hail the 'tiny farming community' of Deer Trail...

A friendly warning from the FAA - 

Photo courtesy of Mesa County Sheriff's Department

From the Associated Press...
...The FAA released a statement in response to questions about an ordinance under consideration in the tiny farming community of Deer Trail, Colo., that would encourage hunters to shoot down drones. The administration reminded the public that it regulates the nation's airspace, including the airspace over cities and towns.

A drone "hit by gunfire could crash, causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air," the statement said. "Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in criminal or civil liability, just as would firing at a manned airplane."

Under the proposed ordinance, Deer Trail would grant hunting permits to shoot drones. The permits would cost $25 each. The town would also encourage drone hunting by awarding $100 to anyone who presents a valid hunting license and identifiable pieces of a drone that has been shot down...

Classic Chassis - FM 219 at Hwy. 6, Clifton, TX

It's a Big D car club, and - wow - and how!

http://www.classicchassis.com
-    C   L   I    C   K   -

Click on images for a full-size view...



http://youtu.be/vcZ1k4d02KA
 check   -  it  -   out

'We had nothing to gain' – accused arsonist

Cop accused mom of dead woman over arson

Tina Pierce seated on living room furniture
 cops say came from burned house

“April was a big girl. She weighed almost 300 pounds. If you crossed her, she would definitely come at you...” - Cristina Ann Morgan, April Troyn's sister

Clifton – She can't remember exactly what day it happened – there were so many times the cops came to her door asking her about the fire – but she does remember her daughter putting the officers on the run, off the porch, gone for the day, with choice harsh words unprintable.

Tina Pierce, the mother of a woman who died May 4 under questionable circumstances while in custody at the Bosque County Jail, says Clifton police harassed her repeatedly over an unrelated crime for which her other daughter is indicted – arson of a dwelling.

If that's not complicated enough, there is the matter of for what charge, exactly, her deceased daughter thought she was under arrest when she called her family on May 2.

“She told us she thought it was for tickets,” Ms. Pierce recalls. She had been involved in a single car accident while driving her sister's van. The children were unrestrained by car seats or safety belts. A Clifton police officer named Monte Chastain came to her sister's house 8 miles out of town in a squad car and picked her up to take her to jail on a scofflaw warrant issued over not pay ing the tickets. He lost control of the vehicle and hit a tree on the way back. He is no longer with the police department.

When police arrested her on May 2, court records show, it was for endangering a child in December, an offense for which police obtained an arrest warrant in February. Curiously, at the time of the original December complaint, the police released her children to her custody on the orders of Childrens Protective Services workers. They found no reason to press a complaint on that date five months earlier. (click here)

502 N. Ave. D, Clifton

On the way to jail, she told her mother and sister, Police Detective Darrin Glenn questioned her about the arson of her sister's rental house at 811 Alpha Pl., for which her sister Hope Lane and her husband Michael Green are indicted. She says there is an audio tape of that interrogation, that the police have promised to release it to her attorney when the investigation is complete.

A bizarre detail of the couple's arrest includes the fact that the night of the fire, Mr. Green demanded that police take him to jail because he had been fighting with his wife. (click)

In response to an earlier article, Mr. Green denied his guilt, writing, “This is the first time in my life I've ever been arrested for something I didn't do.my family and I lost everything we owned in that house fire,some things were totally irreplaceable. My wife and i were fighting that night but what couple don't?I used to drink a lot,I won't deny that and it caused us to fight alot, But never would i intentionally set fire to anything. My kids my wife and i lost everything we had.I wouldn't do that to anyone. do you know how it feels to wake up and have no clothes or shoes or a bed? We didn't have any insurance we were renting.we were at church getting clothes when officer glenn asked us questions and my wife signed a paper for a fire marshal to come in and test for the cause of the fire. We had nothing to gain..."

A Fire Marshal's investigation detected petroleum distillate accelerant had been sprinkled around the rear door of the house and set ablaze. Two other homes adjacent to that address, all of them owned by the same family related by marriage, have burned.

April Troyn's death has been ruled a suicide by hanging, according to the 220^th Judicial District Attorney, B.J. Shepherd, who alerted the Waco media of the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's finding, quoting a report that has been sealed by Pct. 1 Justice Court Ray Ballman, pending a Texas Rangers investigation. Though the details were released to a broadcaster and a print media daily publication, the information is unavailable to all others, including the family of the deceased.

Said Ms. Pierce of Clifton Police Chief Steve Adcock's repeated visits to her front porch at 502 Ave. D, Clifton, “He kept badgering me. They were trying to make me say it was Hope's furniture (on the porch) and I know she burned the house (at 811 Alpha Pl.) down.”

Matters finally came to a head one day when in frustration she went to her daughter's bedroom door where she slept and asked her to speak to the cops on her behalf.

“April came out here and said 'Look M____F_____, this furniture belongs to my mother. Hope's furniture burned up in the fire. Now, you get your a__ out of here and don't come back...”

Chief Adcock and another member of the department left immediately, as she remembers. She obtained the furniture on her porch from a Baptist minister who donated it to the family when she was living in a barren house at Meridian. Now that her daughter's family is living with her at Clifton, she has beds in every room, and no room inside for a living room suite.

Said Ms. Pierce, mother of the three daughters, “I had to get myself three more dogs to guard the place. I've been broken into three times. They come by at night and throw rocks at the dogs...”

Ms. Pierce knows little of what happened to her daughter April. “All I know is a police officer came to my door and told me she was deceased, that she died at the jail, and it's all under investigation.”

Gun defenders term Temple cops 'corrupt, abusive'

M/Sgt. C.J. Grisham

Belton – Army Master Sergeant C.J. Grisham donated $20,000, the remainder of his legal defense fund, to the National Association for Legal Gun Defense.

In return, the organization will “defend his Second Amendment rights...against a corrupt and abusive police force” in a July 31 pre-trial hearing in Bell County Court at Law for the offense of “rudely displaying” an assault rifle on a rural road in Temple as he carried it openly.

The trial for a violation of a subsection of the Disorderly Conduct statute is expected to take place during the first or second week of August, said Sgt. Grisham.

Officers of the Temple Police Department arrested Sgt. Grisham and confiscated his AR-15 and a .45 caliber handgun he was carrying under a Texas Concealed Carry Handgun License. They still have the firearms, as well as the Sergeant's concealed carry license.

The case has become something of a cause celebre, leading to many other open carry organizations and public displays of veterans and militia members openly carrying assault rifles and shotguns as they march through neighborhoods throughout Texas. It is legal to carry a long gun openly in the state. Police officers dislike the practice.

Oathkeepers and Dontcomply.com, in cooperation with Come and Take It Temple staged an open carry march around the Temple cop shop on June 1 to help him raise funds to pay for his legal defense.

The National Association for Legal Gun Defense pledges up to $1 million in legal defense funding for members who are arrested for gun violations, and furnishes training in what to say and not to say when confronted by police. Their website is located at this URL:

www.selfdefensefund.com

“It would be unethical to keep that money for personal use when I no longer need it. I truly appreciate all the support I've gotten and continue to get,” said Sgt. Grisham in his announcement of the philanthropy, which is dedicated to helping veterans defend against gun charges.

According to the website, the organization is made up of lawyers who specialize in gun rights defense cases.

Judge teaches Hasan how to make opening statement, defers ruling on victim impact testimony synopses

Ft. Hood - Proceedings entered into a weird phase as the judge schooled an accused murderer on how to conduct an opening statement at his own trial.

Col. Tara Osborn admonished Maj. Abu Nidal Malik Hasan that if he chooses to make an opening statment, he must couch his words in a non-testimonial form.

“Opening statements are not evidence,” the judge said, causing some spectators to remark later that it sounded like classroom instruction for a law student.

She also told the former Army psychiatrist on trial for his life in a capital case of premeditated murder of 13 and the attempted premedtated murder of an additional 32 persons on Guy Fawkes Day, the fifth of November, 2009, that he may make his opening statement either at the beginning, or the end of the trial.

“In that role, you will be acting as an attorney. You will not be allowed to testify.”

To illustrate her concern, she instructed the bearded, ailing paraplegic, “You can say, ‘The evidence will show that I am the shooter,’ but you cannot say, ‘I am the shooter.’”

In other matters, Judge Osborn hammered out the issues regarding stipulation in a ticklish matter of production of synopses of what witnesses who will testify as victims will likely say should there be a conviction of Maj. Hasan, as charged.

The issue has long been a bone of extreme contention between government prosecutors and the Army lawyers who were to have served as defense counsel, now relegated to the role of standby counsel.

Tensions ran high as the lead prosecutor objected strenuously to having to supply the information in written form.

He emphasized that the witnesses will be prohibited from giving an opinion on the crime, on Maj. Hasan, “or the appropriate sentence.”

“There is no requirement...This is a blatant attempt to prevent the testimoy of victims. These people lost a family member. There are no surprises.”

Not good enough, according to the attorney who was to have served as the lead defense counsel.

Should the defense identify objectionable items that would likely prejudice the members of the Court Martial panel, the defense counsel - who will now be Maj. Hasan - would proceed to request an evidentiary hearing prior to offering a motion in limine to set limits on what may be said, and may not be said in the presence of the jurors.

“The real concern is what they’re going to say when they’re in the chair and asked these questions by these prosecutors.”

Both he and Maj. Hasan agreed that though the standby counsel will be obliged to help locate and produce the witnesses who will be called to offer testimony as to victim impact, interviewing and summarizing their likely testimony will be the obligation of Maj. Hasan.

Col. Osborn said she needs time to study two cases that establish conditions precedent in the matter. She reserved her judgment, and will rule on it at another hearing scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 25.

Five more prospective jurors will be kept on standby in case anything happens to upset the statutory quorum of a minimum of 13 members, the judge announced.

Elements of proof in Hasan case to be weighed

Scene of terrorist attack at Ft. Hood on Guy Fawkes Day, Nov. 5, 2009

'Stipulations' - final pre-trial pleading

A Texas State District Judge, upon hearing a capital murder defendant's pleading to represent himself at trial - “That's kind of like doing your own open heart surgery.”

“It is never too late to hire a lawyer, even on the day of trial in order to secure another delay in the proceedings.” Evan L. Loeffler, American Bar Association

“Everything that happened in that building will become extremely relevant to that panel. - chief prosecutor, United States. v. Hasan (click here for a previous report)

Ft. Hood – A final pre-trial hearing scheduled for 2:30 p.m. On Thursday, July 18, is the last chance the defendant will get to do what famed murder defense lawyer Clarence Darrow said is the most important part of litigating a criminal defense – other than picking the right jury.

The case is won or lost during pre-trial hearings, before the first word is spoken during the presentation of evidence and testimony at trial.

It's a matter of life and death for Major Hasan because an execution order can only be entered following a unanimous verdict of guilt by a jury. (click here for a more detailed report)

When the prosecution steps before the jury to inveigh the opening argument in its case seeking the execution by lethal injection of Maj. Abu Nidal Malik Hasan, the ultimate goal will be to prove two things.

Major Hasan

First, when the former Army psychiatrist opened fire on unarmed soldiers and civilian workers at the Soldier Readiness Center on Nov. 5, 2009, it was with a specific intent to kill.

Secondly, the act of killing 13 persons and attempting to kill an additional 32 who were wounded by what witnesses have described as the rapid and expert fire of a FN Herstal 5.7 x 28 mm semiautomatic handgun, was premeditated.

The specifications of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 of premeditated attempted murder requires “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that the accused displayed a “premeditated design to kill.”

According to Courts Martial manuals and numerous citations of previous cases upheld by appeals courts, “the 'premeditated design to kill' does not have to exist for any particular or measurable length of time...” (U.S. v. Sechler).

Furthermore, the existence of premeditation may be inferred from the circumstances, without direct evidence or testimony as to the defendant's statements of intent.

Pulling the trigger the first time establishes proof of premeditation for an infinite number of subsequent acts, according to the rules. In addition, some of the circumstances that have been cited in previous military cases include “the viciousness of the assault” (U.S. v. Ayers); the fact that the weapon was procured before killing (U.S. v. Mitchell).

Maj. Hasan has tried – twice – to “accept guilt” for his acts. Col. Tara Osborn has denied his motion on both attempts because the Rules of Courts Martial do not allow a defendant to plead guilty to a capital charge involving multiple killings. (click here for a previous report)

At a recent hearing held on May 9, the Army's lead prosecutor argued, “There is no constitutional right to plead guilty. All the arguments they have made are meaningless...”

The judge agreed, saying “Here the defendant is accused of killing 14 persons...I believe the accused would be admitting that he had the intent to kill each of them.”

The primary responsibility of the judge – any judge who is hearing any kind of criminal case – is to see that the defendant receives a fair trial by making dead sure representatives on both sides of the lawsuit follow all the rules.

Extensive fortifications to on-post courthouse

It's a tall order in this case, where the defendant has been allowed to defend himself – and doesn't know all the rules.

He has the constitutional right to mount his own defense, but admits, constantly, that “I don't know what I don't know.”

The judge reminds him – constantly – that it's his responsibility to find out because he can only make an appeal by perfecting the trial record through a timely objection to a point of appeal. 

The accused will be held to the same standards of legal competence as any licensed attorney. 

He will be allowed to consult with the three Army lawyers he fired, all three of whom are sitting in for the duration of the trial, but they have made strenuous objections on ethical grounds to being required to give him legal advice. (click here for a previous report)

With one of their number relegated - by Hasan's demand - to sitting outside the well of the court, on the spectator side of the bar, they have accepted their role as one of standing by should there be any change in the defendant's pro se status, and the judge rescinds her previous order to revoke his privilege to represent himself.

Some of the elements of proof that would be rendered unnecessary, elements argued vociferously during pre-trial litigation – had the the judge granted the Major's motion to plead guilty, include:

Stipulation, as an undisputed fact, to the carnage of the crime scene, including a lengthy FBI videotape depicting the bloody aftermath of the rampage. Prosecutors countered the argument, saying, “Everything that went on in that building will become extremely relevant to that panel.”

Jurors would have also missed hearing about:

1. ballistics reports detailing the path of bullets through body tissue and bone, and the subsequent damage they caused;
2. autopsy reports that explain how the wounds caused by the Major's bullets – bullets designed to pierce body armor worn by soldiers and police – caused the death or wounding of those targeted.
3. crime scene photos depicting the position of victims and the path of the Major's murderous march through bloody hell;
   

   
4. witness statements and testimony regarding the things the defendant said and did, the manner of his combat shooting, and the skills he displayed, as well as his demeanor and invocation of God; (click here for a report about Hasan's motion in limine)
5. descriptions and testimony about the type of weapon used, how it was acquired, and what kind of training the Major sought off-post from a civilian instructor in combat skills;
6. correspondence through e-mail with a known terrorist, an Al Qaeda operative who served as an Islamic Mullah at a mosque near Washington, D.C., the Major's former duty station before he was transferred to Ft. Hood.  (click here for a take-out)